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The next few matches were a walk in the park when compared to facing Elise. While I took them down with relative ease, with the different opponents I faced, I noticed the clear disparity in performance between nobles and commoners. Elise excluded, of course, I count her as a freak of nature.
While the commoner students stuck to the spells and practices ingrained into them by the academy, which had nothing wrong with it of course, I noticed that most of the noble students were capable of casting their spells faster on average, and if my eyes and ears do not deceive me, quite a few of their chants and hand signs were shortcutted and even spliced with words and signs of power outside the widely used standard in order to decrease cast time, increase spell strength, or augment the form or function of the spell cast. No doubt this was knowledge passed down from their family.
The other thing I noticed, was equipment, while I preferred to stay agile and not use any wands or staffs, most of the kids participating in the Spellcasting Duels were using wands and staves as a channeling medium to take the load off their minds when caching spells and focusing their mana control. Commoners would use the ones provided by the school or those they crafted themselves, while the noble kids were rocking higher-end stuff.
The same thing applied to magical protection, they were all wearing rings, necklaces, bracelets, and charms of some kind that were enchanted to defend against magic attacks. The commoner kids had charms made out of whatever magically conductive material they could find, while the noble kids had fine enchanted jewelry.
The only thing protecting the commoners from getting steamrolled by overgeared opponents was a restriction on the quality and quantity of equipment allowed to be used in the event, and the tournament staff took this very seriously. Before we even drew lots, we were all subjected to rigorous scans by tournament staff in order to enforce this rule.
I came back to the luxurious waiting room after wiping the floor with one of my Advanced Spell Theory classmates, and I did not feel bad about it. Apparently, all the wins he got so far must have gotten to his head when he started shit-talking me, saying that I was lucky to get this far and he would be the one to put a stop to me and started showboating by showing off his mastery of elemental magic.
I decided to put an end to his bullshit by pinballing him around the stage with Earth Spikes and ended it by using the Earth Spike to eject him from the stage.
I took my seat at the bar as the bartender pulled up my pot of tea he kept warm, as I was sipping tea, I looked around and started to realize how different the temperament of the people participating in the Spellcasting Duel event was.
During the Swordsmanship Duels, the contestants were usually busy being rowdy and borderline starting fights, only being stopped by the threat of disqualification if they were involved in a fight outside of the dual.
On the other hand, the Spellcasting Duel contestants were a lot more subdued. They would be either meditating, reading, or quietly debating magical theories with each other.
I took a look at the tournament board, I saw a name that stood out, and if I got past the quarter and semi-finals, I would meet him in the finals. Alistair of the Marquess House of Arundel, which is a noble house known for pumping out high-ranking mages over the centuries.
So far, my impression of him is neutral, and much like Elise, he was silent in our magic class, but unlike her, he was taciturn instead of shy. To his credit, despite his house's high rank and ancient lineage, he does well keeping himself out of petty children's politics and fends off an almost never-ending stream of sycophants, noble or not, who try to suck up to him for his talent in magic and family name.
Shortly after as I was enjoying my tea, the door to the room opened, and speak of the devil, Alistair Arundel walked in from just having won his match that was after mine. Our eyes locked and he gave a small nod before making his way to a cushioned floor sitting area and started meditating.
Soon enough, due to the smaller number of people left, it was my turn again, and this time it was the quarter-finals.
***
Two fights later, I was walking back to the resting area, disappointed at what I just faced. The kids I faced in the quarter and semi-finals fought like they had no sense of self-preservation, all because they were wearing multiple magic protections that were supposed to tank hits while they weaved a 3rd or 4th circle spell to finish me off in one shot.
They did not fight like Elise, who tried to control the flow of battle by striking first, nor did they control the terrain like her when she made her Earth Wall bunker, making it hard to manipulate the earth around her.
To beat the last two opponents, I did not even have to use 3rd circle spells, the moment I noticed they had multiple magical protections, I just used earth and air magic to manipulate the terrain around them to throw them off the stage.
But now that I think about it, I think that maybe I am just spoilt by my high expectations because Elise was my first opponent. I guess I should expect less from a bunch of normal 12-year-olds, but I doubt I could consider Alistair Arundel to be a normal 12-year-old, every time he was called up for a match, he would always come back shortly after, almost as if he did not spend any time fighting.
When I entered the rest area, I saw Alistair, who naturally was the only one left. But instead of sitting to the side and meditating like he usually does, he is sitting next to my usual barstool. I can only guess he wants a talk, so I just shrug and take my usual seat.
"Arundel." I greet him with a nod.
"Ironcrest." Alistair replies in kind and we kind of sit there in a somewhat awkward silence.
After close to a minute of silence, Alistair started off. "I honestly did not expect you to get this far. From all the rumors I heard, I thought you would be a sword-swinging brute who knew some magic, but I was clearly wrong." he said with a barely detectable mirth in his voice.
"And who said I was not a sword-swinging brute who knew some magic?" I replied in a joking voice, "But I am thinking you were expecting to face someone else in the finals?" I asked, hoping his answer would not be who I thought it was.
"Indeed, I thought I would be facing the Greycloak scion, their's is a line of competent mages, but apparently he was eliminated by your semi-finalist opponent." he said while gesturing at the tournament board.
Yes! He does not have his eyes on Elise, I should be able to poach her without competition.
"Well, if the last guy I was facing beat this Greycloak guy, I don't think he was that competent. The last guy…" I look at the tournament board to remember the last guy I just fought, "Osric Hollowmere, did not seem very apt at fighting either, he just stood there and expected his magical protection to hold while weaving a big spell."
Alistair just nodded, "Unfortunately, just like my father constantly laments about, most mages nowadays are more of the scholarly type, and are not accustomed to the art of combat, magical or not."
I gave him the side-eye and asked, "And I assume you are not most mages?"
He just gave me a small smile and said, "You will just have to find out later."